CONTAINER HAVING MEANS FOR GUARANTEEING THE AUTHENTICITY OF ORIGIN OF A PRODUCT THEREIN

Abstract: This device is characterised in that sealing means (6b) are associated with means (10) for visually indicating the first opening of a container, which consist of an engraved inscription (11) straddling said sealing means (6d), once they are in place, and an immediately adjacent part (1a) of the container (1), so that the part (11a) of the inscription (11), which is provided directly in the material of the container (1a), is thereby made indelible, whereas the complementary part (11b) of the inscription (11) which is provided on an adjacent zone (6c) of the sealing means (6b) is removed during the tearing open of said sealing means when the container is opened, thus leading to an irremediable separation of the two complementary parts (11a, 11b) of the inscription (11), without the possibility of subsequently re-aligning them with a view to fraudulent re-use of the container (1).

Description: Container having means for guaranteeing the authenticity of origin of a product therein This invention relates to a container having a system for guaranteeing the authenticity of origin of a product therein, and to a method of sealing such a container. This product, which may be of any kind, is held in a container, which is generally but not necessarily rigid. As has just been pointed out, the system according to the invention may be used for any product but it will readily be understood that the products which are most liable to be counterfeited are luxury products such as fine alcoholic drinks, perfumes or cosmetics in general, but there might equally be applications in the pharmaceutical industry or even in the food industry. In recent years, it has been found that counterfeiting techniques have also evolved, in the sense that the counterfeiters have judged that nothing could be closer in appearance to an original container than the container itself. Thus, counterfeit products of dubious quality packaged in original containers obtained from a network for recovering and recycling these containers have appeared in certain parallel markets . In past years systems for combatting such fraudulent operations have, of course, been envisaged and attempts have been made to preserve the original products by means for sealing the opening of the container which, once opened, left signs of being torn open. Thus, it has been proposed that labels or adhesive strips be applied between the closure of the container and the container itself so that any handling of the closure in order to remove it causes at least partial destruction of the guarantee label. Security rings have also been proposed, arranged between the closure and part of the neck of the container and consisting of a frangible zone which can be broken away as soon as the closure begins to be turned in order to remove it. It is also known to place a sleeve of heat- shrinkable material over the closure system of the container and a part adjacent thereto. Holograms have also been used, which are highly sophisticated means, again placed on the areas of opening of the containers. Unfortunately, all these systems are reproducible and counterfeiters have not hesitated to replace one label with another, one security ring with another similar ring or one hologram with another hologram. In fact, they have only to remove the sealing components damaged by first use and replace them with means which, if not identical, are at least equivalent, the substrate, in this case the container, remaining totally authentic as far as that is concerned. Consequently, a first step in the present invention consisted in concluding that the container should not remain free from any trace of the seal after a first use but on the contrary some traces should remain, impossible to remove by scratching, gluing or machining, without damaging the appearance of the container itself, thus making it in any case unsuitable for re-use. To this end, the present invention, from a first aspect, relates to system for guaranteeing the authenticity of origin of a product in a container provided with a closure system and comprising sealing means attached between an outer part of the closure system and the container, so as to be capable of being destroyed by deliberately tearing off when the container is first opened, characterised in that the sealing means are associated with means for visually indicating this first opening, which means consist of an engraved inscription straddling said sealing means, once they are in place, and an immediately adjacent part of the container, the part of the inscription made directly in the material of the container being indelible, and the complementary part of the inscription provided on an adjacent zone of the sealing means being detached when the sealing means are torn away as the container is opened, thus causing irremediable separation of the two complementary parts of the inscription. The possibility of subsequent re-alignment of the two parts of the inscription for the purposes of fraudulent re-use of the container is thereby obviated. The system according to the invention may be modified, in a second aspect of the invention, such that the inscription instead straddles the sealing means and an adjacent part of the container closure or a component integral therewith. From a third aspect the invention also provides a method of securing a container having closure means, comprising applying removable sealing means between said closure means and the container, and making an engraved inscription straddling the sealing means and the container, in such a position that when the sealing means is removed upon opening the container for the first time, the parts of the inscription on the sealing means and the container become separated. From a yet further aspect, the invention provides a container having means indicating opening of the container, said means comprising an engraved inscription straddling sealing means applied to a closure of the container and intended to be removed and thereby destroyed on opening, and an adjacent part of the container or closure, such that when the sealing means is removed on opening, the two parts of the inscription are separated. The invention will be better understood and further features thereof will be described with the aid of the following description, referring to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings which illustrate, in a non- restrictive capacity, a preferred embodiment of the invention. In the drawings: Figure 1 is a plan view of the neck of a bottle equipped with a device for guaranteeing authenticity according to the invention. Figure 2 is a top view according to Figure 1. Figure 3 is a longitudinal section along the line III-III in Figure 2. As a non-restrictive example, the container shown in the drawings and equipped with a device for guaranteeing the authenticity of origin of the product which it contains, is a bottle 1. This bottle 1 consists in the conventional way of a body 2 which extends at the top into a neck 3 adapted to pour the product, in this case a liquid 4. The container or bottle 1 is equipped with a hermetic closure system 5, which in this case consists of a stopper but might, of course, be replaced by a lid in a different type of container with a wider opening. The bottle 1 shown in the drawings has sealing means 6 attached between an outer part of the closure system or cork 5 and the neck 3 of the bottle 1. These means are adapted to be destroyed by tearing open by a deliberate action on the part of the consumer when the container is opened for the first time. In the present case, first sealing means consist of a first cap 6a enveloping said cork 5 and extending concentrically over the neck 3 of the bottle 1. This type of cap 6a is generally made from a lead and tin alloy, tin on its own or a composite of aluminium and/or plastics, and bears markings relating to the product brand. At the plane of junction 8 of the cork 5 to the neck 3 the cap 6a has a tear strip 7 which is adapted to be destroyed when the cork 5 is first turned in order to open it. This strip 7 consists of two horizontal perforations 7a, 7b forming a succession of holes arranged in a line. In addition, the cap 6a is itself covered by a sleeve 6b formed from a sheath of heat-shrinkable material, which also has a tear strip 9, this time vertical, consisting of at least two perforations 9a and 9b formed by a succession of holes arranged in a line. Thus, the bottle is opened by tearing first the strip located between the two vertical perforations 9a, 9b on the sleeve 6b, thus detaching it from the neck 3, and then tearing the strip located between the two horizontal perforations 7a, 7b of the cap 6a, thus releasing the cork. Preferably, the sleeve 6b is made of a transparent material, of a length "h2" which is greater than the length "hi" of the cap 6a, for reasons which will be explained hereinafter. The material of which the sleeve 6b is made may be polyvinylchloride, for example. According to a feature of the invention, the sealing means 6b are associated with means 10 for visually indicating the first opening, which consists of an engraved inscription 11 straddling said sealing means 6b once they are in position and an immediately adjacent part la of the container 1, so that the part 11a of the inscription 11, made in the actual material of the container la is thereby rendered indelible, whereas the complementary part lib of the inscription 11 which is provided on an adjacent zone 6c of the sealing means 6b is removed when the sealing means is torn open, thus resulting in irremediable separation of the two complementary parts 11a, lib of the inscription 11, without the possibility of subsequent re-alignment for the purpose of fraudulent re-use of the container 1. As mentioned hereinbefore, the sealing means 6b mentioned above in this case consist of the heat shrinkable sleeve placed over the cap 6a. Obviously, it would also be possible to provide the inscription 11 on the cap 6a and an adjacent part of the bottle 1, but this solution is not preferred because it would then be easy to carry out falsification by replacing the cap 6a with a longer, opaque, cap, to hide the part 11a of the inscription 11 engraved on the bottle 1 in the zone la. This is also the reason why the sleeve 6b is longer than the cap 6a. In fact, since current methods cannot produce alloy caps 6a in lengths as long as those of plastic sleeves 6b, the part 11a of the inscription 11 will still remain on the container 1, without any possibility of fraudulently recovering it with a longer cap. It is also preferred to make the inscription partly on the sleeve of heat shrinkable material, once the latter has been put in place, because the manufacturing tolerances of the crude sleeve and its random shrinkage, with the addition of the tolerances of the engraving process used and those of the container consequently make it virtually impossible to re-align the parts 11a and lib of the inscription 11 after the sleeve 6b bearing the part lib has been destroyed. According to another important preferred feature of the invention, the inscription 11 is made by engraving, for example using a laser beam travelling from point to point, adapted to attack the glass of the bottle 1 in its zone la and the plastics of the sleeve 6b in its zone 6c. In order to do this, the sleeve 6b is preferably of a thickness such as to be attacked by the laser beam for the purpose of engraving it but without allowing the beam to pass right through it, so that the characters making up part lib of the inscription 11 are not cut away and detached from the lower edge of said sleeve 6b. According to another preferred feature of the invention, if the glass of the bottle 1 is relatively light in colour, which does not assist the reading of the laser engraving by contrast, local colouring 12 is provided in the zone of the inscription 11, this colouring being on the one hand translucent to prevent its being fraudulently masked by superimposing a new colour and, on the other hand, capable of being peeled or scratched off to enable an informed consumer to check the authenticity of the product 4. This colouring 12 of the zone of the engraved inscription 11 is achieved by applying paint or by silk screen printing or by tempography. The inscription 11 may consist of a series of figures or letters or symbols or a combination thereof in a particular code. The marking described above is provided at the base of the neck of the bottle, but obviously it may also be provided on an upper part of the sleeve, straddling the cork or a component integral therewith. It should also be noted that the colouring may be provided by means of an adhesive component.

Claims: Claims 1. A system for guaranteeing the authenticity of origin of a product in a container, said container being provided with a closure system and comprising sealing means attached between an outer part of the closure system and the container, so as to be capable of being destroyed by being torn away by deliberate action when the container is first opened, characterised in that the sealing means are associated with means for visually indicating the first opening, which means consist of an engraved inscription straddling said sealing means, once they are in position, and an immediately adjacent part of the container, the part of the inscription provided directly in the material of the container being indelible, and the complementary part of the inscription provided on an adjacent zone of the sealing means being detached in the course of tearing open of .the sealing means, thus causing irremediable separation of the two complementary parts of the inscription. 2. A system according to claim 1, characterised in that the container is a bottle, particularly a glass bottle, and in that the means for sealing the closure thereof consist of a sleeve enveloping said closure and extending concentrically over the neck of the bottle. 3. A system according to claim 2, characterised in that the sleeve is obtained from a sheath of heat shrinkable material. 4. A system according to one of claims 2 and 3, characterised in that the sleeve has at least one vertical tear strip consisting of at least one perforation forming a succession of holes arranged in a line. 5. A system according to any one of claims 2 to 4, characterised in that the sleeve covers a first cap which fits hermetically over the cork and an upper part of the neck of the bottle. 6. A system according to claim 5, characterised in that the capsule has a height (hi) less than that (h2) of the sleeve which covers it. 7. A system according to any one of claims 2 to 6, characterised in that the sleeve is made of a transparent plastic material. 8. A system according to claim 7, characterised in that the sleeve is made of vinyl polychloride. 9. A system according to any one of claims 2 to 8, characterised in that the engraved inscription is made by means of a laser adapted to attack the material of the container and the material of the sleeve. 10. A system according to claim 9, characterised in that the sleeve is of a thickness such as to be attacked by the laser beam for engraving it without the laser beam passing right through it, so that the characters forming part of the inscription are not cut away and detached from the lower edge of said sleeve. 11. A system according to any one of claims 2 to 10, characterised in that colouring is provided in the region of the inscription, said colouring being preferably translucent and removable by a consumer. 12. A system according to claim 11, characterised in that the colouring of the engraved zone is obtained by the application of paint, or by silk screen treatment. 13. A system according to any preceding claim, characterised in that the inscription consists of a series of letters and/or figures and/or symbols. 14. A system as claimed in any preceding claim modified in that the inscription is provided such that it instead straddles the sealing means and a closure member of the container or a part integral therewith. 15. A method of securing a container having closure means, comprising applying removable sealing means between said closure means and the container, and making an engraved inscription straddling the sealing means and the container, in such a position that when the sealing means is removed upon opening the container, for the first time, the parts of the inscription on the sealing means and the container become separated. 16. A method as claimed in claim 15 wherein said sealing means is heat shrunk around a neck of said container. 17. A method as claimed in claim 15 or 16 wherein said inscription is formed by laser. 18. A method as claimed in claim 17 wherein the thickness of the sealing means and the power of the laser is such that the laser does not cut fully through the sealing means. 19. A container having means indicating opening of the container, said means comprising an engraved inscription straddling sealing means applied to a closure of the container and intended to be removed and thereby destroyed on opening, and an adjacent part of the container or closure, such that when the sealing means - Il ¬ ls removed on opening, the two parts of the inscription are separated.

Inventors: BOUNEAU FRANCOIS, GUGLIERI HENRI-MICHEL, GUICHARD BERNARD, VANDEVOORDE RENE, BOUNEAU, FRANCOIS, GUGLIERI, HENRI-MICHEL, GUICHARD, BERNARD, VANDEVOORDE, RENE
Applicants: AG PATENTS LTD, BOUNEAU FRANCOIS, GUGLIERI HENRI MICHEL, GUICHARD BERNARD, VANDEVOORDE RENE, A.G. (PATENTS) LIMITED, BOUNEAU, FRANCOIS, GUGLIERI, HENRI-MICHEL, GUICHARD, BERNARD, VANDEVOORDE, RENE
Application year: 1994
Main classification: B65D50
IPC codes: B65D55